Tag: hermeneutics

James Burnham

1,130 words

In The Machiavellians: Defenders of Freedom,[1] James Burnham sets forth a Machiavellian method for interpreting political texts. (Methods of interpretation are also known as “hermeneutic” methods.) Burnham distinguishes between the “formal” and the “real” meanings of texts. The formal meaning of a text is “what it explicitly states when taken at face value” (p. 8). The formal meaning also expresses, albeit in an indirect and disguised manner, “what may be called the real meaning” (p. 8). (more…)

Aurobindo Ghosh, 1872–1950

741 mots

English original here

De 1914 à 1916, le périodique Arya [en sanskrit signifie noble] — imprimé à Pondichéry en un nombre limité d’exemplaires et maintenant quasiment introuvable — publia une série d’essais de Srî Aurobindo sur le secret du Véda. Ces essais ont été réédités en un volume sous le même titre, Le secret du Véda (Cahiers du Sud, 1954) [réédité par Fayard en 1975]. (more…)

5,714 words

Richard Polt
Time and Trauma: Thinking Through Heidegger in the Thirties
Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 2019

Richard Polt is one of the most distinguished and prolific Heidegger scholars active today. He is the author of one of the best introductory books on Heidegger, Heidegger: An Introduction, as well as a commentary on one of Heidegger’s most difficult texts, The Emergency of Being: On Heidegger’s “Contributions to Philosophy.”[1] (more…)

Max Weber

4,535 words

Part 1 here

The Intellectual Bankruptcy of the Present Age

Not only does Strauss claim that historicism is a healthy reaction to the intellectual bankruptcy of the modern world, in the next section of his essay, he also attributes this bankruptcy to non-historicist causes.

First, Strauss talks about Max Weber’s Learning and Science as Vocation. He specifically objects to Weber’s claim that reason cannot speak about the ultimate aims of life: (more…)

3,215 words

Part 1 of 2 

Leo Strauss is widely known as a critic of historicism and an advocate of classical philosophy. Historicism holds that philosophical ideas are relative to culture, whereas classical philosophy aims for knowledge of nature, which is not relative to culture. But what is Strauss’s own point of view? Does he base his arguments on historicist or classical philosophical premises? (more…)

Leo Strauss, 1899–1973

6,759 slov

English original here

Poznámka autora:

Následující esej jsem napsal v 90. letech jako doktorand, ne v rámci svých studijních povinností, ale spíš abych si ujasnil své myšlenky ohledně čtení filozofických textů v rámci přípravy k psaní své vlastní doktorské disertační práce. Jen těžko dokážu uvěřit, že jsem míval dostatek volného času na to, abych psal eseje o skoro osmi tisících slovech „do šuplíku,“ ale důkaz máte před sebou. (more…)

4,506 words

Part 2 of 2. Part 1 here.

Schleiermacher’s Philosophy of Mind

According to Schleiermacher, the task of philosophy is the “immersion of the Spirit into the innermost depths of itself and of things in order to fathom the relations of their [spirit and nature] being-together.”[1] Schleiermacher’s philosophy, like German idealism in general, was very influenced by, and a reaction to, the critical transcendental philosophy of Immanuel Kant. (more…)

Martin Heidegger

2,441 words

Part 2 of 2

3. The Hermeneutic Circle in Heidegger’s Being and Time

Heidegger’s purpose in Being and Time[1] is to explore the question of the sense (Sinn) of Being (Sein). By “Being” Heidegger means the meaningful presence of beings to a knower. By the “sense of Being,” Heidegger refers to the meaningful presence of meaning itself. (more…)

Heidegger modeling his Hobbit hat

108 words

I talk to Guessed Worker and Daniel Sienkiewicz at Majority Rights Radio about Heidegger and the politics of identity here.

Topics include: modern politics and the abolition of limits, the necessity of a return to limits, the classical notion of nature, the notion of weighty historical contingency, Heidegger and the Conservative Revolution, Heidegger in relation to National Socialism and the New Right, Heidegger and authenticity, race and historical identity, Heidegger and Darwinism, and science in relation to philosophy and common sense.  (more…)

10,311 words

Julius Evola, La Genitrice

Editor’s Note:

This text is the transcript by V. S. of Jonathan Bowden’s lecture on Evola delivered to the 27th meeting of the New Right in London on June 5, 2010. As usual, I have deleted a few false starts and introduced punctuation and paragraph breaks for maximum clarity. You can listen to it at YouTube here. Three passages are marked unintelligible. If you can make out the words, please post a comment below or contact me at [email protected].  (more…)

11,050 words

Editor’s Note:

The following text is a transcript by V.S. of one of Jonathan Bowden’s most entertaining lectures, which was delivered to the 25th New Right meeting in London on February 13, 2010. Although Stewart Home is the principal subject, Bowden romps through a wide field of politically correct theories, ultra-Left sects, and decadent forms of modern art.

(more…)

3,160 words

Part 2 of 2

Author’s Note:

The following text is based on a transcript by V. S. of a lecture on Plato’s Republic. As usual, I have edited his transcript to remove excessive wordiness and corrected a couple of small mistakes.  

Plato writes in his Seventh Letter that he never set forth his own philosophy in any of his writings. That’s a pretty extraordinary statement for one of our greatest philosophers to make. (more…)

3,906 words

Paul Edward Gottfried
Leo Strauss and the Conservative Movement in America: A Critical Appraisal
New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012

Paul Gottfried’s admirable book on Leo Strauss is an unusual and welcome critique from the Right.

Leo Strauss (1899–1973) was a German-born Jewish political theorist who moved to the United States in 1937. (more…)